FortySouth

The Universal Service Fund (USF) was established by the recently passed Kenya Communications Amendment Act 2008 and, while promising in theory, it seems to be rather thin on the details of its implementation.

Where a lack of clarity on the issues exists, the Law could be prone to misrepresentation and abuse.

What can be gleaned from the Act? Continue reading

On my WordPress dashboard is a draft post of a rant about official Kenya Government websites that I, almost without fail, find cause to update whenever I happen to visit these sites.

Save for a few diamonds in the ruff that present relevant and up-to-date content on a user-friendly, navigable and visually-appealing interface (e.g. CBK, KSMS, ICT Board, KNEC etc.), most of the sites that represent the online face of ministries and parastatals are sufferably navigable. Perhaps it’s a personal preference, but scrolling text and animated GIFs can be very distracting. This is where the AdBlock Plus and NoScript extensions for Firefox shine; they make it easy to block images, Flash and JavaScript in the browser.

So I was pleasantly surprised to note today that the Kenyan Ministry of Information and Communication revamped their site. The new design features a cleaner interface with simplified navigation and current news is prominently displayed; this in lieu of the previous congested landing page with inconsistent typography, symmetry and broken links .

Whether the “blog-like” format of the home page and site navigation exclusively from the header is appropriate for a site with as much content to offer as does this, is debatable; although it doesn’t lend itself any favors with complying with the Three-click rule best practice.

One big plus is the new forum section where threads can be started on any topic for discussion. If you’re lucky, the PS Bitange Ndemo just might respond as he (or his proxy) seems to be a regular visitor.

If you haven’t already, visit the site to find policy documents, draft bills, news and contribute to the discourse on all things ICT.

So Nortel Networks today filed for bankruptcy in the US and Canada, seeking protection from creditors one day before a $107 million interest payment was due, notes the WSJ.

Some saw this coming, with the mounting debt and burning of cash by NT. While the stock price is not at $0 yet, it’s trading at a whopping $0.32. In fact, the company is under an NYSE de-list warning if in six months the stock price doesn’t rise above $1.

The plummet? From a peak market value of $250 billion in 2000, to the paltry $275 million on hand.

Trends?